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LETTER: Media placing too much blame on Israel

MyCentralJersey
12:02 a.m. EDT August 20, 2014

Palestinian workers repair electric cables next to Al-Omary Mosque, which was destroyed by Israeli strikes in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip.
AP In this Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 photo, Palestinian workers fix electricity cables next to Al-Omary Mosque was destroyed in Israeli Strikes in Jabaliya, Northern Gaza Strip. Israel has hit and destroyed 63 mosques in Gaza in its month-old war with Hamas, Palestinian officials say. The reason, Israel says, is that Hamas is using mosques to stockpile weapons and rocket launchers and hide tunnels. Gazaâ??s Hamas rulers deny the accusations. But in its determination to go after what it says are militant arsenals, Israel is throwing aside any reluctance it had in the past to hit religious sites for fear of a diplomatic backlash. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)(Photo: Khalil Hamra, AP)

This letter is aimed specifically at Jews who live in Central Jersey and may read the Home News Tribune. I am writing to you in response to the article originally published by USA Today and then republished here on Aug. 8, entitled “Latest conflict in Israel ravages children in Gaza,” with a photo of a little Palestinian boy sitting on a mattress in the middle of a landscape of debris.

The article speaks about the suffering of Palestinian children, the condemnation of Israel by the United Nations and U.S., the psychological effects of the bombings on Palestinian children, and the numbers of their dead. There is one sentence which reads, “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, charged Wednesday that Hamas is engaging in “child sacrifice” by using civilians as human shields. The tone of this sentence is unclear, but as it is a quote from the Israeli leader, it can be seen as a quote to show his refusal to accept the “reality” as it is depicted in the rest of the article.

Nowhere else in the article is Hamas mentioned. Nowhere does it say anything about how thousands of Hamas’ rockets rained down on Israel for many months prior to Israel’s defensive attack. While the article focuses on the effects of this conflict on children, nowhere is it mentioned that Israeli children have nightmares that bad people will come up from tunnels and kill them, or their reality of sirens and bomb shelters.

Nowhere does it say anything about how many tens of thousands of Israeli children would have been killed had Hamas’ rockets hit their intended targets. Nowhere does it say how Israel has gone out of its way to protect the civilians in the enemy territory of this conflict to a greater degree than any nation in any war has ever done in the history of warfare, while Hamas deliberately targets civilians.

If I knew little about the Arab-Israeli conflict and I read that article in the Home News Tribune, I would clearly get the impression that Israel is this powerful, aggressive state bent on the destruction of Palestinian people and the taking of their land. Of course, this is not only false, it is ironic, even Orwellian, as Israel has never publically stated nor do they have any official documents that indicate anything but their desire to live in peace with their Arab neighbors.

On the other hand, Hamas’ charter — a document that they have put forth outlining their stated mission and philosophies — clearly states that their priority is the utter destruction of the State of Israel, the claiming of all of its land as their own, and the complete genocidal destruction of the Jewish people.

There is no doubt that the suffering of the Palestinian people is horrible, and that the killing of so many innocents, including children, should be given attention to by the world community. But the Home News Tribune article puts the blame squarely on Israel.

Eighty years ago forces in Europe utilized mass media such as newspapers to influence public opinion about Jews. Look what that lead to. I am taking a public stand today. What are you going to do?